Albedo (alchemy)
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Albedo is one of the four major stages of alchemy; along with nigredo, citrinitas and rubedo. It is a Latinicized term meaning "whiteness" and follows the nigredo stage. Following the harrowing, chaotic nigredo, it is necessary for purification provided by the albedo which is literally referred to as ablutio; the washing away of impurities by aqua vitae.
Psychologist Carl Jung equated the albedo with unconscious contrasexual soul images; the anima in men and animus in women. It is a phase where insight into shadow projections are realized, and inflated ego and unneeded conceptualizations are removed from the psyche
Reference: Nigel Hamilton "The Alchemical Process of Transformation" 1985
